A new level of mutual benefit will be achieved in Ontario between the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Brad Duguid and Treaty 3 leader Diane M. Kelly. A letter of intent was signed in early October with goals to increase capacity building and resolve land disputes.

Aboriginal communities across Canada are at the forefront of a campaign to end mining laws rooted in the 19th century view that mineral extraction is the best use of any land, and that governments' top priority is to facilitate exploration and mining.
The pressure is most intense in British Columbia and Ontario where a number of on-the-ground confrontations and ground-breaking court decisions have raised public awareness of issues like mine waste and Aboriginal rights.

A number of weeks ago, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty shuffled his cabinet, moving the very capable Michael Bryant, minister of Aboriginal Affairs, up the food chain to Economic Development.
The former attorney general of the province had been appointed the first ever minister of the newly created Aboriginal portfolio in October of 2007. Less than a year!
Since nature (and politics) hates a vacuum, Brad Duguid, former Labour Minister, rushed in and is now thumbing through paint swatches for his new office.

A number of weeks ago, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty shuffled his cabinet, moving the very capable Michael Bryant, minister of Aboriginal Affairs, up the food chain to Economic Development.
The former attorney general of the province had been appointed the first ever minister of the newly created Aboriginal portfolio in October of 2007. Less than a year!
Since nature (and politics) hates a vacuum, Brad Duguid, former Labour Minister, rushed in and is now thumbing through paint swatches for his new office.

Indian residential school survivors will have to wait longer than initially anticipated before they can make presentations for seats on the 10-member Indian Residential Schools Survivor Committee.
With the resignation of Chief Commissioner Justice Harry LaForme throwing a wrench into the Truth and Reconciliation process, the IRS Survivor Committee has also been overrun with applications.

After five weeks of sound bites and political fights, the people have spoken, and what they've said is pretty much the same thing as they said in 2006: Stephen Harper and the Conservatives warrant no more than minority power in a federal government.

Most people wouldn't take such a positive view having been charged with a number of offences, including property damage and illegal harvesting of timber, but Chief Dean Sayers isn't most people.
He sees the charges he's now facing as historic, and an opportunity for his community, the Batchewana First Nation, to deal with concerns over provincial harvesting practices and seek clarity of their treaty relationship with the Crown.

After only six months as the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Justice Harry LaForme has cited "many hurdles and obstacles (that) could not and cannot be overcome" and resigned his position effective Oct. 20.
"I don't think anybody expected (his) resignation. Most people were expecting it would get sorted out that the commissioners would agree among themselves on a single vision and that they would move forward," said Peter Rehak, spokesperson for LaForme.

From a small town potluck in La Ronge, Sask. to a march on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Oct. 4 communities across Canada found their own ways of honouring the lives of hundreds of Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered.
Since 2005, the annual "Sisters in Spirit" vigil, organized by the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC), has grown steadily from the 11 cities, towns and reserves that originally took part to 40 this year paying tribute across Canada.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE MOURNING